Or So She Thought
Lacking in patience and faith
Issue date: 2/15/06 Section: Opinion
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Online Editor
I have this small potted plant that sits on my windowsill in my dorm room. I found it in the one-dollar aisle at Target at the beginning of the semester and decided to try out my gardening skills.
The truth is, I started out with two of these little flowerpots. I purchased them, brought them back to my dorm and started to read the instructions. Preparing these plants should have been easy enough, if I had actually followed the instructions I read. I was supposed to take the prepackaged soil out of the pot, mix it up with some water in a bowl and then put it back in the pot before I even added the seeds. I thought that this was an unnecessary step, so I simply started adding water to the soil while it was in the pots. The soil started to swell and fall out over the edge of the pots and ran down the drain of my sink. I was finally able to scrape the floating soil off the top of each pot and push the seeds down into the soil.
The instructions said to only put five seeds in each pot. I was afraid that if I only used five seeds, the plant might not grow, so I poured fifteen seeds into each pot. I cleaned off the sides where the soil had caked on and sat the plants on my windowsill.
It has been a month and a half since I played with my gardening skills. Now only one potted plant sits on my windowsill, and there are so many little green stems sticking out of the soil that I am afraid it isn't going to make it very long before the roots start to crowd each other out.
My biggest dilemma in trying to help these plants grow was my lack of patience. Instead of taking the time to put the soil in a bowl and mix in the water, I tried to do it while the soil was still in the pot, which ended up being the demise of the second plant. I had drowned the seeds when watering it because I wanted the plant to grow faster, and I thought more water would help. Instead of only placing five seeds in the pot and having the faith to believe the person who wrote the instructions knew what he was talking about, I poured all fifteen seeds into the pot. Now my plant has a limited life span unless I learn how to put it in a bigger pot. Isn't it funny how a little bit of patience may have saved both plants and myself a lot of grief?
I know that I could blame the lack of growing on the fact both plants together didn't even cost three dollars, but that isn't really what is to blame. The little potted plant on my windowsill is growing despite the price I paid for it, but it is my fault that it probably won't make it much longer because I didn't have the patience or the faith to wait for it to grow. I think that you have to have both faith and patience to make it in this life. You need faith to believe that something is going to happen and you have to have the patience to wait for it instead of taking it into your own hands. I think we could all use a little more of both, for our sakes and the sake of little potted plants.